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Outstanding

I eagerly anticipated this album after the young knives first album that was very good but tended to have a couple of filler tracks on, as this was the difficult second album I expected something of a similar standard. However, I was amazed to find that this album easily surpassed the first and had far greater strength in depth.

The good points from the first album are still there, strong lyrics of a quirky nature and a catchy musical soundtrack. But on top of this they have added a wider array of sounds to their repertoire.

The album starts strongly with songs like 'Fit 4 U', 'Terra Firma' and 'Up All Night'. 'Terra Firma' was the first single released off the album with it's somewhat bizarre chorus of 'Fake rabbit, real snake / Terra firma, terra firma' it's a good tune and strong lyrically even though it has those bizarre elements.

The other songs on the album also fit into this image with 'Turn Tail' probably being the strongest track on the album, it's a bit of an epic lasting nearly 5 minutes and combines strong lyrics with an array of changing catchy tunes. It also has a very simple chorus that is very effective, the only downside comes about 3 minutes into the song when the guitars are just used to make what could only be described as noise rather than music.

A few of the songs on this album are often heard in the background of BBC and ITV TV shows, with 'Current Of THe River' recently being used to advertise a new series on BBC2.

There is also a hidden song on the album combined with 'Current Of The River' this is a bizarre song called 'Long Cool Drink By The Pool' and is done in a similar style to that of Captain Beefheart which has been mentioned by The Young Knives as one of their main influences.

The one song on this album that isn't as strong as the rest is 'Flies' however it will slowly grow on you, even though a song about flies is never going to be that great.

I would definitely recommend this album, it's one of the strongest second albums to be released and offers something a bit different to other albums currently available.